No Stress Batch Painting Florals.

Batch Painting Florals.

Why batch painting?

Inspired by American floral artists Wendy Brightbill, and Amanda Evanston, I am spending time with my sketchbooks this summer. There is no one way to paint flowers so I am in full exploration and discovery mode.

• Which colours look best together?
• Which shapes are most pleasing?
• How do I modify my composition from sketchbook to canvas?
• What happens when I paint intuitively rather than plan it out (my usual way of working).

Batch Painting makes sense because:

I often have paint left over from different projects. Some gelli printed papers are not as colourful as I would like them to be so if I have some bright colours left, I might just dab paint on those previously painted papers. And this is also the reason you might see the same colours appearing here and there...but I try to avoid publishing florals that are too similar all in one post.

Batch painting several pages in a sketchbook means that there is already a base of colour to work with rather than just blank pages. Often, the random brush strokes will "suggest" a floral and I like to try to work with that possibility.

Also, batch painting in a sketchbook keeps all the ideas in one place. I have three floral sketchbooks on the go and many, many florals on watercolour paper. It is so much easier to pick up a sketchbook and find inspiration rather than having to sift through a box of incomplete or unsuccessful paintings.

Don't get me wrong...watercolour paper has its purpose.

Sometimes, I like to paint bigger than just the  5 x 8 1/4" Moleskine pages. Invariably, I come back to my sketchbooks because they are just so much more convenient. Smaller means I can paint anywhere especially if I am using paint sticks like the Tempura ones I recently bought, or the Caran D'Ache crayons that are so much fun to use, or watercolours...anything except acrylics since acrylics are much messier and require more preparation.

Sketchbook floral experiments.

So far, none of the florals I have painted in my sketchbook have been planned. There is no pressure because this is all part of the learning process.

Although I am not generally keen on creating patterns, this one evolved from simple boredom doodling. It seems that I intuitively paint patterns perhaps because it is easier to work with repetition. I had already painted the two pages above with black gesso thinking I would be using acrylics, but then decided to try coloured pencils and markers instead. I like creating a pattern for the relaxation of it - the curves, the repetition are really meditative and very much like doodling which I think we have all done at one time or another.

The background in this sketchbook entry is leftover red and pink paint leftover from another project. Not wanting to waste any of it, I played with swirls on the double page spread to create these roses. As a final touch, I added Caran D'Ache crayon work and Tempura Paint sticks to brighten the leaves and the flowers. I could see this on a canvas which is one of the reasons using a sketchbook is important: to test ideas before committing them to an expensive canvas.

I decided to give these swirls a bit of a twist with the added gold leaf to acrylic paint.